Page 65 of One Night With The Nanny

Fin made a choking sound. “He thought he could sneak a whole man past us!”

A loud hoot escaped from Gavin before he bit into a knuckle. “Did you hear that? He was going to deny everything and pretend it never happened!”

Morris was hugging his stomach as he hung onto Penn. “This is just like the time he broke his glasses. He popped the lenses out and didn’t think his parents would notice, then walked into the wrong house and got bit by the neighbor’s Pomeranian.”

“I forgot about that!” Fin cried, almost falling out of his chair, he was laughing so hard. “He got LASIK and swears it never happened!”

It was all very illuminating and entertaining but Max coughed as he held up a hand, noting the lack of children in the kitchen and the back courtyard. “Is there a plan, in case Reid handles this ambush poorly?”

Fin made a dismissive pffft! sound. “He’ll be fine,” he insisted, earning a firm nod from Morris.

“The meltdown is always catastrophic and ugly, but he will rise from the ashes in about an hour and claim that he handled this in an extremely rational manner,” he predicted and Riley chuckled in agreement.

“Totally. And he’ll probably have an announcement to make, in regards to the ‘situation’ with Max.”

Gavin made a serious, knowing sound as he watched Max. “Consider this more of an intervention than an ambush. There was no way he was going to acknowledge his feelings for you, or accept that he should do something about them, unless we caught him red-handed.”

“How do you know?” Max challenged and received several groans in response.

“Really?” Fin said with a pointed look at Max. “Here’s why he’s running like hell from you,” he began, holding up a finger. “He’s afraid he’ll have to choose between you and Gavin.” Another finger shot up. “He’s afraid he’ll have to choose between you and all of us.” A third finger flicked out. “He’d rather die old and alone than leave Briarwood Terrace.”

“That’s the big one,” Gavin confirmed as he stood. He straightened and was no longer aloof and urbane as he approached Max. His gaze sharpened as he sized Max up. “His entire life is here and Reid is loved. It won’t be easy to convince him and I hope you understand how extraordinarily lucky you are that Agnes and Walker are willing to vouch for you,” he said, his voice shaking. “We don’t care if you’re a prince. We wouldn’t be willing to part with Reid if we didn’t think you deserved him. Do not let us down,” he added heavily and Max shook his head.

“I won’t, but why do you assume I’d make him choose? What if I don’t want him to leave?”

“What do you mean?” Gavin asked, his head cocking warily.

Max gestured for him to step closer. “I didn’t want to be presumptuous and I know it’s a bit soon, but rumor has it the unit upstairs is currently unoccupied.”

“It is…” Gavin’s eyes widened as they searched Max’s. “The last tenant’s family is still making arrangements for some of his things and we didn’t feel the need to rush them.”

“Perhaps we could discuss your plans for that unit, when it becomes available.”

“That would be…” Gavin threw his arms around Max, startling him. “Amazing. Absolutely amazing.”

Cheers and claps erupted in the kitchen and Max blushed as he hugged Gavin back. “It’s…still rather soon and as you said, I’ll have to convince Reid.”

Gavin smiled, gesturing at the faces beaming back at them. “Don’t worry. We won’t let him escape,” he said and Max started to laugh, then turned and leaned to check the hallway.

“Escape?”

25

Sunday, 9:24 a.m. …

“Come…on!” Reid’s tongue protruded from the corner of his mouth as he ground the edge of his parents’ house key in the end of a screw, attempting in vain to loosen it. “Bah!” He turned on the chair and tossed his keys at the bed and hopped down. “I would have made a terrible secret agent,” he accepted as he stepped back and scowled at the vent.

He was trapped and there was only one way out.

“Fine, fine, fine, fine, fine…” he said as he went back to pacing.

He’d already flailed and raged and he’d cried and pleaded for a way to go back in time and set the alarm on his phone.

“What’s done is done. Take stock and assess the damage,” he told himself, then pushed out a cleansing breath. Everyone clearly knew and it was more than likely that Fin was keeping their parents updated via texts. So there was no chance Reid could end things with Max now. His mother would definitely murder him.

“The thing is… I don’t want to end things with Max,” he admitted and held onto his stomach when it flipped and churned. “That doesn’t mean that anything has to change. I just don’t go out anymore, because I’ll be spending my evenings with Max while we figure out where this is going.”

He’d meant to make the idea less terrifying but Reid grabbed a shelf when the room tilted. He would have to include Max in the conversation and Reid suspected there would be a certain amount of compromise required.

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